Wollongong led 54-47 at half-time, but were outscored by 20 points in the second half as they suffered their first loss against the former West Sydney Razorbacks since February last year.

Yesterday's loss - the Hawks' fourth away from home in as many games this season - left both Wollongong and Sydney at 4-5, two games outside the NBL top six after seven rounds.

Wollongong went into the game on the back of a victory over Gold Coast on Friday night, and looked like extending their winning streak to three when they led Sydney 45-29 midway through the second quarter.

However, the Spirit reduced the margin to seven points at the main break - Wollongong's half-time lead could have been much bigger except for a tepid 8-15 effort from the charity stripe in the second quarter. That mark translated to a icy-cold 19-36 for the game from Wollongong.

By contrast, Sydney came out red-hot in the third quarter and scored the first 11 points of the period to dismantle Wollongong's lead.

The Spirit kept the Hawks at arm's length for the rest of the match, thanks to 24 points on 8-15 shooting from import Derrick Low and 22 from Liam Rush.

Their efforts combined to cancel out a team-high 22 points and 11 rebounds from Wollongong import Dusty Rychart and 15 points and seven assists from Kavossy Franklin.

Wollongong shot just 32-85 from the field and were out-rebounded by the much taller Spirit squad.

The Hawks led 29-18 after the first quarter thanks to ten points from Franklin and six points off the bench from Anthony Petrie.

Wollongong dominated the opening exchanges of the second quarter and forced the Spirit into several costly turnovers that helped the visitors build a half-time lead.

A Julian Khazzouh three-pointer from the left corner with 24.8 seconds remaining in the period capped a horror third quarter for the Hawks, who shot just 6-18 from the field.

Wollongong briefly rallied in the final term and trimmed the margin to 88-84 on a lay-up by Franklin with 4:23 remaining.

Hawks coach Eric Cooks was disappointed his side dropped a match that left them in a dogfight for the sixth and final play-off spot.

"We need to be more disciplined, we're struggling on the road," Cooks said.

"We had a chance to bury them early and we didn't do it. We're not good enough to take anyone easily. In the second half we didn't come out with enough energy."